Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Politics

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    About the News Interest Index

    The News Interest Index is a weekly survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press aimed at gauging the public’s interest in and reaction to major news events. This project has been undertaken in conjunction with the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index, an ongoing content analysis of […]

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    Perceptions of Economic News Continue to Improve

    Overview The number of Americans hearing mostly bad news about the nation’s economy continues to decline. Three-in-ten (30%) now say they are hearing mostly bad economic news, less than half the number that said this in early August (67%). The percentage saying they are hearing a mix of good and bad news about the economy […]

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    About the Surveys

    Most of the analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted January 4-8, 2012 among a national sample of 1,507 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (902 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 605 were interviewed on a cell […]

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    GOP Voters Still Unenthused About Presidential Field

    Overview On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Republican voters continue to express mixed views of the party’s presidential field. Roughly half (51%) of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters say the candidates are excellent or good, while 44% say they are only fair or poor. The percentage expressing positive views of the GOP presidential […]

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    Continued Majority Support for Death Penalty

    Overview Public opinion about the death penalty has changed only modestly in recent years, but there continues to be far less support for the death penalty than there was in the mid-1990s. A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted […]

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    Six Telling Findings from the Iowa Caucuses

    Here are several findings from polling of voters on the day of the Iowa caucuses that may — or may not — prove to be important as the GOP race moves on to New Hampshire and beyond.  Romney Gets 1% of “True Conservative” Voters.  A quarter of Iowa caucus voters said the most important candidate […]

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    Little Change in Public’s Response to ’Capitalism,’ ’Socialism’

    Overview The recent Occupy Wall Street protests have focused public attention on what organizers see as the excesses of America’s free market system, but perceptions of capitalism – and even of socialism – have changed little since early 2010 despite the recent tumult. The American public’s take on capitalism remains mixed, with just slightly more […]

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    2011: A Year of Big Stories Both Foreign and Domestic

    Overview The threat of nuclear disaster in Japan and the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs were two of the breaking news stories that captured the greatest amount of public attention in 2011. But Americans also kept a steady watch on the economy at home. More than half said they followed news about […]

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    In 2007, Mood Just Beginning to Sour, Democrats Better Regarded

    Four years ago, as voters were about to cast the first ballots in the 2008 election, the public’s mood was not very good, but still a lot better than it is today. In late 2007, the economic recession was gaining strength and the public’s view of the economy had grown more negative. Only about a […]

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    About the Survey

    The analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted December 7-11, 2011 among a national sample of 1,521 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (914 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 607 were interviewed on a cell phone, including […]